Perrysburg City Council discuss trees cut down along Fort Meigs Road

Some residents in a Perrysburg neighborhood are angry after city crews cut down dozens of trees along a ditch at the edge of their backyards.

Author:
Amanda Fay, Blair Caldwell

Published:
9:45 PM EST November 15, 2016

Updated:
9:55 PM EDT August 12, 2018

PERRYSBURG, OH (WTOL) - Some residents in a Perrysburg neighborhood are angry after city crews cut down dozens of trees along a ditch at the edge of their backyards.

"So now, you just look down Fort Meigs Road and it's decimated. It's like World War II happened. There's nothing lovely about Fort Meigs Road anymore," said Rachel Schmitz, who lives in the neighborhood.

Schmitz said she wasn't able to see Fort Meigs Road from her backyard, but that changed last week when she said she counted about 90 trees cut down by a city crew. The cut trees cleared the ditch just beyond her property line.

"I've lost my privacy. I've lost my property value because when we moved in 16 years ago, there was a lovely canopy of trees," said Schmitz.

Schmitz believes something could have been done to save at least some of the trees.

The City Council said in a meeting Tuesday night the ditch needed to be cleared because of some flow problems upstream.

Many residents in the area showed up at the meeting. They said the clearing caused a lack of privacy and a destruction of natural resources.

"What they did was wrong," said Jackie Venzel, a Perrysburg resident. "They said that they did not need to notify anybody. If they would notify us even 30 days in advance we could go to them and put together a plan and say wait a minute."

City council made a motion after public hearing at their meeting Tuesday to stop further removal of vegetation on phases two and three of the project until they can come up with a better plan.

Mayor Mike Olmstead said

"I'm in agreement with that at this point given the concerns that we have so that we can make sure that we have the right process. That will be halted now until we can come up with a solution that works for everyone and then we will go forward. At the end of the day we're going to have to make sure that the ditches are clear and that the neighborhoods are draining otherwise we are going to have folks in here not talking about that concern, but about the fact that they have water in their basement."

Neighbors were excited to hear about the motion and hope its a sign of change.

"Rachel had to hold me down," explained Venzel of her reaction. "I was so excited that a motion was made that was unbelievable and that says a lot for our councilmen that we have elected."

The Mayor says the next step is to take the matter to the health sanitation utilities committee to make a decision on how they proceed on the matter into the future.